Superior Drummer 2 is the award-winning, professional drum production studio aimed at the user looking for total control in any aspect imaginable when it comes to producing drums.

With its unrivaled sample engine, phenomenal sound shaping tools and extensive feature list, Superior Drummer 2 truly sets the benchmark in modern drum production. Superior Drummer 2 comes with 20 GB of meticulously sampled quality drums, recorded in the legendary Avatar Studios in New York City by engineer duo Neil Dorfsman and Pat Thrall together with drummer Nir Z. Between them, they have over the past three decades worked with a wide range of top artists such as Meatloaf, Celine Dion, Nick Lachey, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Dire Straits, Beyoncé, Björk, Kiss, Joss Stone, Genesis, John Mayer and Chris Cornell.

In one word WOW!! I have owned DFH 2(east west) for all most 2 years and have put off getting superior for one reason or another, but i wish i would have got this much, much sooner. For real acoustic drum sounds I don't think you can do any better than this.I have heard alot of other drum samplers and some have cool features but in terms of sound and control this is the best I have ever heard. The level of realism is unmatched, this is the way drums are meant to sound. All of the snares are incredible, even the room ambience sounds great and the hi-hats have so many variations you can always get the attack you need. My only gripe is the construction area is too specific, for example you have like 6 ride cymbal slots and only certain ride cymbals can be in certain slots personally i never use more than two at a time. Some times sampled drums even though sounding great don't always set in the mix well the drums in this collection are very easy to mix and the room mic almost erases the need for reverb for most tracks.Pick this up, you will be happy you didRead more

Before I begin my review let me tell you a little bit about what I use and compare this too. I own (legit) BFD , BFD XFL , Battery 2 , Drumkit From Hell 2 (with the NI Sampler) , and Drumkit From Hell Superior (which I got at the upgrade price). I also own numerous Reason Refills and Sample Packs from various places. So as you can see I have a good standpoint to give my opinions. Just so you know (because I will refer to performance) My computer is a Dual 3.20 Pentium Xeon (the newer ones) with Hyper Threading , 2 GB of DDR2 RAM , 400GB HD SATA , 250GB usb 2.0 HD , 80 GB usb 2.0 HD , M-Audio Delta 1010 , Creative soundblaster augidy 2 ZS , Cooling System , and I regularly keep all the drives defragged via Diskeeper.

The Pros:DFHS is unbeatable Library (matched only by BFD XFL) all around for people who want organic sounding , un-processed , drum samples and a professional sounding "drummer" at their finger tips. The program is well suited for all types of Metal , Rock , Punk , and related genres and I'm sure other people would find it VERY usefull as well because of the vast collection of drums and cymbals (at very well selected sizes). It is by far the BEST drum library for I have ever heard for the respective styles. It is well worth the money.

The Cons: My first beef with the program is you actually have to physically drag and drop the library from 4 double sided DVDs & 1 regular DVD. Not only that but it takes HOURS. Though the library is "superior" the plguins that accompany the program are VERY Hard to understand , hard to use , and even on my system the sounds drop out where as no other plugin on my system does so. It may my settings with the program becayse honestly they are hard to understand. Another beef is the poor excuse for midi's that comes with the program. The keymaps for DFHS are also very unfriendly to somone with a keyboard instead of a V-Kit or Sample Pad !! And the GM setting takes away functionality. You can edit your own keymaps but I absolutely hate how the feature is set up.

DFHS V.S. BFD & BFD XFL:

BFD surpasses DFHS in sound quality in a minute insignificant way but DFHS gives more versatility. DFHS allows such advantages as having a much larger drum kit and other forms of percussion that BFD and XFL do not provide. They both have great emulation of a real drummer's behaviour however BFD's interface is WAY EASIER TO USE and eats up way less memory. ALSO NOTE THAT DFHS can be loaded into BFD using BFD From Hell , a free program provided by Fxpansion. I do not know all of the advantages off hand , the first I would assume would be the various hits are mapped better and on the same key at diff velocities (unlike in DFHS) , and a superior interface to use the DFHS library in. The big disadvantage however is going back to the limited number of simeltaneous drums BFD allows compared to DFHS.

DFHS V.S Battery 2:DFHS is superior in every aspect if your looking for unprocessed sounds. If your a newbie , dont want to mix your drum sounds , want to use a variety of samples in other formats etc.. Battery 2 is the way to go. DFHS is more suited for real drum sounds and emulating a real drummer where as Battey 2 is essentially just an expensive (but well worth it) sampler with a nice library.Read more